Partial contrast manipulation effects on facial impressions of attractiveness, femininity, and health.

<p>This study was conducted to examine the effects of independently manipulated luminance contrast (facial contrast) of facial parts on appearance impressions and to explore factors contributing to attractiveness. We created high-contrast and low-contrast images of faces with respect to the surrounding skin for the eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth of an androgynous face based on average images of male and female faces. After 82 university students were presented with side-by-side stimuli of high-contrast and low-contrast faces including each of the four parts, each participant was asked to judge the depicted person's attractiveness, femininity, and health. Results obtained using Scheffe's method of paired comparisons indicated a significant sex × face parts (contrast manipulation site) interaction. The subtest results showed the following characteristics. First, women rated faces with high mouth contrast as higher for attractiveness, femininity, and healthiness, and judged faces with low nose contrast to be attractive. They also judged faces with high eyebrow contrast as healthy. Men rated faces with high eye contrast as higher for attractiveness, femininity, and healthiness, and judged faces with lower nose contrast to be more feminine. Overall, no correlation was found between attractiveness, femininity, and healthiness. Regarding correlations by gender and facial parts, significant positive correlations were found between attractiveness and femininity, attractiveness and femininity of the eyebrows and mouth, and between attractiveness and healthiness of eyes and nose among men, but no significant correlation was found among women.</p><p>When judging attractiveness, women were found to be influenced significantly by the mouth contrast. Men were influenced by the eye contrast. Correlations between the impressions revealed differences depending on the evaluator gender. The findings suggest the importance of gender differences when judging facial attractiveness.</p>